Nina Ricci

"It's Paris fashion week in New York," Peter Copping joked at Style.com's Nina Ricci appointment, referring to all the European brands at Milk Studios today showing off their wares. But nowhere did it feel more français than at his presentation. Credit that to the ultra-feminine look Copping has crafted for the label over the last two years and to his Resort reference points, specifically the fifties and sixties.

Copping opened with a pink suit, the skirt pencil-slim and the jacket matador-short. The signature lingerie details (zigzag stitching, elastic band waist) were in full effect; this is a designer fully in command of his house's codes. And he's familiar enough with midcentury designs to know that they weren't necessarily liberating, so he's cut an hourglass dress in a stretchy printed linen and added a little bit of extra room to the bodice of a strapless cocktail number so his girl can eat on her night on the town, not just sip. Copping also kept things modern by balancing the collection's candy colors with neutrals; a taupe blouse and violet tweed skirt combo looked particularly fresh. Another clever idea: the bright bikinis that he showed as underpinnings to daywear. We'd like to give a special shout-out to the fabulous fifties-ish pumps with Perspex heels that revealed the nails holding them together within. We don't think the French have a word for sick, as in "so perversely good they're sick," but that's exactly what they were.